The Martingale Wharf chronicles continue – as the original Martingale building was demolished in the early part of the week. Seen above is refuse from the original structure (the main component was torn down since the safety of the original brick building was in question as the bricks began to sag towards the waterfront) and the Piscataqua River Bridge and the Sarah Long Bridge can once again be seen in the distance. The original building, which was one of the city’s oldest remaining structures, is certainly a loss for the historic fabric of the city – but safety trumps all, and what’s done is done.

I’m hoping that the finished building proves to be a beautiful addition to the waterfront once it’s completed – and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Click the images for a full size view.

For a view of the old brick structure – visit: Martingale Wharf Building (ALMOST)

BUY PRINTS HERE

It is official. The Champlain Bridge will not be demolished on Wednesday. It is tentatively rescheduled for Monday. They are blaming the cold weather. The contractor, Advanced Explosives Demolition, who does hail from somewhat warmer climes, has had a hard time placing the explosives in the extreme cold. It has been colder than usual in the north country the past week.

For those who haven’t heard, the Lake Champlain Bridge is scheduled to be demolished on Wednesday December 23, 2009 at 10am. (Talk about a terrible Christmas present for preservationists, huh?)

See this NYSDOT Press Release. The public may view the demolition at specific areas, such as on Vermont 125 (read this release from VTrans). If you are unable to attend the demolition, it will also be available online via live streaming – see the NYSDOT website on Wednesday morning.

How do preservationists feel about watching the demolition of a bridge they fought to save? Is it a once-in-a-lifetime type of situation or more of an I-can’t-bear-to-watch issue or more like I-will-not-dignify-this-decision-by-watching-it? What lessons could preservationists learn from watching it? Please share your thoughts.

______

UPDATE: NYSDOT has issued a press release stating that the bridge demolition will be on December 28, not December 23. Read it here.

Now this is how you demolish a building! A lot of careful thought and planning goes into demolishing a building to ensure it comes down correctly, and safely. These guys did a little extra planning to make the event more enjoyable for the crowds. [via DCP]

No time to mourn, to encounter
rubble in a hole
before retail monster walls
rise above. Dismantling 

December air, live
instruments and raw
voices not welcome
in this symmetrical disaster. 

Uptown bans all scars.

The Champlain Bridge will be demolished Wednesday morning. There will be viewing areas on the New York side of the bridge. The demolition will be webcast. NYSDOT has a web site devoted to news on the bridge: www.nysdot.gov/lakechamplainbridge I expect the details should be up on their site shortly.

So I’m doing a cold, getting it over before Christmas. This is easy. I can do sick, it hurts, but still you’re living in a world where lying down for extended periods is an achievement. Added to this, I do like feeling dizzy like a drunk, and when I shut my eyes my hands feel enormous. I’d like to be a giant. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, since Where The Wild Things Are. So I can get inside a beautiful view and still have it be the thing I saw to start with rather than always out of reach, never within the scope of my arms. I think I need to go to Legoland instead to get it out of my system. It’s sort of like the wanting to eat things that are beautiful. I want to get inside the beauty and destroy it so it’s all mine. Strikethrough Legoland. It won’t be beautiful enough to warrant the effort of demolition.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

For whose benefit the Government was in a hurry to demolish a Government–owned apartment complex in Unit VIII, Bhubaneswar, is not yet known; but its recklessness in demolition has mortally injured two private persons as the structure abandoned half-crushed crumbled upon them on December 17.

Known as Bachelors-barrack, the apartment complex was built up by the Government for unmarried or newly wed officials and for transit stay of personnel on transfer. It was not properly maintained and hence was in need of major repair. But as land-grabbers have found Bhubaneswar a safe grazing ground with commission agents ruling the roost, it was decided to demolish this invaluable complex instead of repairing to suit the design yet unannounced and delay in this respect was intolerable to the General Administration Department that the Chief Minister directly controls.

Thus the demolition started without planning and precaution. Human life was of no relevance to persons who were eager to carry out the demolition. They half-crushed the complex and abandoned it sans any guard, as to them, the message that it would not be repaired but the land it stands upon would be available for different use was delivered aloud.

This induced the tragedy. Eager to grab abandoned scraps, many a poor person as well as scrap traders’ agents started combing the debris. They had no awareness that the half-crushed structure somewhere would crumble upon them. As it happened, routine rescue operation commenced.

The 100-year-old house was designed by John Lyle, the architect who designed Union Station and the Royal Alexandra Theatre, and it was built for John Bayne Maclean, founder of Maclean’s magazine. There are few surviving Lyle structures in the city.

Residents want to save this historic building. The owner wants to demo it. Yesterday, workers apaprently started picking off the historical elements, possibly in a move to make the building harder to designate as historic. The owner of the property claims the building was merely being secured for winter.

“Everything that was done today was in our rights as the property owner,” said John Todd, president of 1626829 Ontario Limited. The company purchased the property for $2.3 million in October 2008.

The building was not designated as historic when the developers bought it, but it seems they knew that the designation was being sought. I heard a representative from the residents’ association this morning on the radio. She said they would be satisfied with a redevelopment that respected key historic elements of the building, and that similar redevelopments had been carried out elsewhere in the area.

I think the developer needs to stop messing with this property until the matter is settled. The community and the City have some say here. If the developer knew going in that designation was being sought, I think they have some responsibility to work with the community and the City to determine a mutually acceptable outcome for this building.

Come on, 1626829 Ontario, it’s time to do the right thing.

Here is the link to the bridge designs submitted for the Champlain Replacement Bridge: https://www.nysdot.gov/regional-offices/region1/projects/lake-champlain-bridge/alternatives The recommendation of the last one shown, the modified network tied arch has been made by the Public Advisory Committee. And, a company from Iowa, Advanced Explosives Demolition, Inc. will be taking the old bridge down in what is being called a “controlled demolition”. The congressional delegations from NY and VT are asking for assistance not only in demolishing the old bridge and building the new one but in establishing and running the temporary ferry to replace the bridge service.

Our first winter kicked off on a high note, with the two of us spending New Year’s Eve converting one of our three refrigerators into a kegerator.  We finished just in time to have a cold, frosty draught beer at midnight to usher in 2008.  We considered the kegerator vital to renovating the house, since having beer on tap makes it easier to lure friends over to donate a weekend of intense physical labor.

Sure enough, our friends Josh and Alessa came to spend a weekend in July helping us with demolition.  They were quite excited to smash stuff up and drink keg beer, as evidenced by this excerpt from an email from Josh just prior to the event:

“Once upon a time, in a land far, far to the south, a friend rented a dumpster in hopes that his other friends would help him fill that mystical dumpster with debris.  A wonderful debris of hope and wonder.”

Note the rotten floorboards in the middle of the kitchen.

The goals for the weekend were ambitious but achievable: remove a kitchen, a bathroom, and the wall that divided them.  It may seem wasteful to remove a kitchen and bathroom, but consider: (1) the awkward layout, with the bathroom taking a huge chunk out of the kitchen, (2) the rotten kitchen floorboards, indicative of water damage, and (3) the toilet sinking into the floor and canted about 15 degrees from vertical.  This stuff had to go.

Note the toilet, not quite vertical. Oddly enough, this bathroom had a brand new drywall ceiling!

Before you’ve started, demo looks like a great time.  Get some good exercise, smash some stuff up, and maybe even achieve catharsis while busting through plaster and wall studs.  At the end of the day, you enjoy pizza and beer on the patio with your friends.  Once you’re into it, though, you realize the truth.  It’s exhausting, messy work.  You have to wear goggles to keep the plaster dust out of your eyes and a mask to keep it out of your lungs.  Oh, and if your house is old, it probably has lead paint.  Brilliant!

We slaved away on that hot July day, removing fixtures and knocking out walls.  Alessa and I smashed up the walls and shoveled the debris into trash cans, which Aaron and Josh carried out to the dumpster.  Aaron and Josh also dismantled the plumbing and wiring and removed the bathroom and kitchen fixtures.  (A note about electricity for the previous owners: it is NOT okay to force a 25 amp fuse into a socket meant for a 15 amp fuse.  That’s how house fires start.)

At some point during the afternoon, our friend Andrew came over to help with the demo.  We were so crowded in the small space, however, that poor Andrew got the miserable task of cleaning out the basement.  Our basement has a dirt floor and was full of junk when we moved in.  (There’s also a large pile of sand in one corner, which is most likely concealing a dead body.)  Andrew hauled up cans and cans of old (and probably very toxic) paint, several huge bags of perlite, and various other relics of people before us.

Our house is so old, they used a log for a floor joist!

By the end of the day, we had demolished all that we set out to do, but we had no energy left to enjoy each other’s company.  Instead of relaxing with keg beer, we wanted only Gatorade or ice water.  Perhaps our friends will come back for round 2 on a less hot and humid day, and we’ll drink our delicious keg beer then?

Jugulator (1997)

Shortly after the Painkiller tour wrapped up, Judas Priest essentially saw a band-breaking move when vocalist Rob Halford decided to leave the band.  After six years, the world figured Judas Priest was long gone and likely to never return.  By the following year would show the band finally return with a new studio album thanks to finding a replacement for Halford in a singer for a Judas Priest cover band-Tim Owens.  However, this wasn’t the Priest most fans wanted, with inspiration from genres such as death metal and thrash metal creeping their way into an otherwise dominantly heavy metal album on Jugulator.  Owens vocal style proved to be one that, although competent, would drive certain fans away along with the less conventional sound.  At first, the album simply sounds bad, but giving it time to wear off can make it a small pleasure.  The title track, “Burn in Hell,” “Bullet Train” and “Cathedral Spires” are all songs that I personally would love to see Owens come on stage to help perform at least once in a while.  But unless you’re a die-hard Priest fan such as myself, this isn’t an album that’s worth much of a recommendation, if at all.

Demolition (2001)

Not too far from this point in the band’s career, the world had found out originally vocalist Rob Halford was homosexual, though the rest of the band wouldn’t reveal their awareness of it.  Regardless, the less than enthusiastic reception to Jugulator forced the band to rethink how they’d try to approach their next studio album.  The result was an album that tried to bring old fans back…by mixing new approaches with old approaches.  As much as I love Judas Priest, despite having a rather mixed bag of releases, this is an album I simply can’t bring myself to liking.  There are three songs on here that I’d listen to, the rest is trash as far as I’m concerned.  It’s seldom that I’d ever give a song one out of five stars, but almost half the tracks on Demolition received this little accolade.  About the only two things this album has going for it overall are improved production over Jugulator and Owens vocals are noticeably superior.  Yet that’s about as far as the level of praise towards it can go.  Oftentimes I can avoid lousy albums, but this, St. Anger and the second self-titled Killswitch Engage album are all contenders for worst album I’ve ever listened to.

Angel of Retribution (2005)

After 14 years and two less than stellar albums, Judas Priest was essentially considered better off dead than adding more lousy material to their catalogue.  However, light shined forth on the band when they announced Rob Halford would be reuniting for their fifteenth studio album, Angel of Retribution.  Fans were skeptical, however, as the true Metal Gods hadn’t been together in so long and the album’s single, “Revolution,” wasn’t exactly encouraging.  But this proved to be put in the past after the album hit stores, as fans happily took the new material, with the unanimous verdict being that it was a solid release.  And with good reason, Angel of Retribution contains some very strong tracks, such as “Judas Rising,” the Painkiller-like “Hellrider” and one of the band’s better ballads, “Angel.”  While albums such as Point of Entry and Turbo might be seen as more accessible, if someone who’s new to the band wants a recommendation and enjoys straightforward metal, Angel of Retribution would probably be my first suggestion.  This is mostly because it shows the band still possessing their old style but giving it a much needed and relatively welcomed facelift.

Nostradamus (2008)

Judas Priest as of recent have been quite different than they were in the late 70s to early 80s.  Rather than releasing a new album annually or every two years, we’re getting the equivalent to about one album every four or so years.  Given the overall quality of each time frame, it’s a bit of a shame.  What some might also consider a shame is the band’s most recent effort, a 23-track, concept album over an hour long based on the French prophet Nostradamus.  The band repeatedly stated that this is a project they’ve always wanted to do, one that they didn’t want to cut much material from.  As a result, the album has been released on two discs and, as one might expect, reactions have been between underwhelmed and mixed.  I personally find this unfortunate, because despite all of the album’s flaws, it’s still a good, if not great package.  The lyrics are overall far better than most of the material the band have done after Sad Wings of Destiny.  Giving this album a more power metal and at times progressive metal sound was a nice change of pace that didn’t feel ridiculous and despite the album’s runtime, it’s overall a very rewarding journey.  Granted, there are some rather weak points, but Nostradamus also has some of the band’s best, including “Dawn of Creation/Prophecy,” “Pestilence and Plague,” “Persectuion,” “Death,” “Calm Before the Storm/Nostradamus” and “Future of Mankind.”

This past Sunday marked the end of a short era for Vienna’s Südbahnhof. Only 53 years old, it served out its purpose as the ugliest train station this side of the Eastern Bloc and has finally succumbed to a long overdue revamp of Viennatown’s city planning.

Ah.

Yes.

Not only is this the end of this most recent incarnation of a train station on this spot, but it marks the end of all train stations on this spot. The new train station, the Hauptbahnhof, will be built several blocks away at the present location of Südtirolerplatz, thereby conveniently (and most logically) tying the train station in with the subway system.

Aside from demolishing an eyesore and making it easier for passengers to get in and out of the city, the main reason for tearing down the Südbahnhof is to create a Durchfahrtsbahnhof, i.e. a non-terminal railway station. The new plan will allow trains to drive right through the North and onward to Venice or wherever without having to back out and change engines. A world of convenience for all.

I don’t want to get into crazy way-back history so I’ll sum up a big chunk by saying that there have been a number of different railway stations on the present site. The Gloggnitzer Bahnhof, the Raaber Bahnhof, a combo of the latter two, the Centralbahnhof. Some of these were just renamings of older train stations. Wasever. More importantly, and more dear to a Viennese’s heart, is, of course, what was there before the war.

Wanna see, wanna see?

Hot damn!

This little puppy was designed by Wilhelm Ritter von Flattich and completed in 1874.

For ye cognoscenti out there, an added fact is that the entrance faced onto a neat little square on the corner of Arsenalstrasse and the Gürtel (see main image above).

That the square (Ghegaplatz) right there, bottom right, undergoing some work, with the Maria-Josepha Park (now Schweizer Garten) across the street.

Surprisingly enough, this Südbahnhof survived World War II relatively unscathed, with mostly broken glass and no structural damages incurred. Even more surprising than that is that post-War Austria decided to set a new symbol for the 2nd Republic by tearing the poor thing down anyway. The simultaneous construction of a new railway station emerged on what used to be the little square.

The new train station no longer faced Ghegaplatz but was designed by Heinrich Hrdlicka to squat on the corner of Arsenalstrasse and the Gürtel itself. It’s main entrance was located on the Gürtel now but most foot traffic came via the side entrance (where the original entrance was) as the majority of the public transport lines dropped you at Arsenalstrasse. Naughty planning!

To be fair, the Hrdlicka design wasn’t purposely designed to be ugly like some other post-war crap. It was very much in keeping with midcentury ideas of architecture, which are not all bad, albeit in this case the scarcity of funds and resources left the building without much oomph.

However, the years of neglect and haphazard patchwork on the station, accompanied by the need to block every wall and window with banners and advertisements, left the station looking shoddy and dark even on the sunniest summer day.

Once again:

I should also state here that until recently, had you asked a Viennese or ANYONE WITH EYES IN THEIR HEAD whether or not the Südbahnhof was an eyesore or not, you would have received a unanimous “yes”. Only since it was slated for demolition did people get all woebegone about it (though not enough to stage a protest to save it). How very Viennese. To them I say, quite politely, “Gosch’n”.

Speaking of eyes, there used to be an installation on the the escalator up to the train platform. It is called “Einen Augenblick Zeit” [A Moment of Time] and consisted two metallic eyeballs, each with a TV screen inside showing a video of a human eye on loop.

They were designed by Kurt Hofstetter and hung there in 1994. They were kinda cool, certainly the highlight of that butt-ugly train station. Whenever someone passed by it it would blink and show the time and you’d hear the ticking of a clock.

The installation was removed in March of this year and “presented” to Prof. Peter Weibel of the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnik (ZKM) in Karlsruhe. The man in charge of development at the Austrian National Railways stated that he missed the installation already and that it would be promptly re-installed in the new Hauptbahnhof when this commences operations in 2012/13. This prompted Prof. Weibel to respond, “It is my hope that the Austrians will stay true to their traditions and forget that which has gone into exile.”  The nerve!

But little does Prof. Weibel know that while she may act like it, Austria never, ever forgets.

-d.

]]> http://newsextras.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/demolition-of-ashley-hotel-and-suites-is-well-underway-with-crews-working-sunday/ Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:46:41 +0000 Carol A. Clark http://newsextras.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/demolition-of-ashley-hotel-and-suites-is-well-underway-with-crews-working-sunday/

Photo by Carol A. Clark/Monitor

Photo by Carol A. Clark/Monitor

Photo by Carol A. Clark/Monitor

Photo by Carol A. Clark/Monitor

Photo by Carol A. Clark/Monitor

The bathroom renovation is progressing.  But like most projects is somewhat behind schedule.  I won’t be showering in my new bathroom for at least a few more days.

After the demolition:

shower demolition

vanity demolition

flooring demolition

After the first day of tiling:

first two rows of shower tiles

floor tiles

After the second day of tiling:

shower tiles

floor tiles

After the third day of tiling:

shower tiles

new vanity installed

floor tiles grouted

Today is shower grouting (except for the white glass strip, that’s for tomorrow to avoid cross-contamination).  The tiling has gone well.  The walls beneath the old tiles were very spongey and mouldy, so a lot of work had to go into repairing those, which counts for a bit of the delay in tiling.

Today was supposed to be all finishings in as well, but that’s just not going to happen.  The old light fixture came out, and what do you know?  The wiring is nowhere near where I need it to be for the very nice, but big bargain light fixture I chose.  So its off to the store for me to see if I can find another fixture that will work.

Also, the square mirror I wanted was out of stock, so I picked up a rectangular one instead.  They are the only two mirrors which actually match the vanity.  Wouldn’t you know, the rectangular one is too tall to hang vertically behind the faucet, and its too wide to hang horizontally.  So now I need to either find a new mirror, or wait forever until the square one is back in stock.

I had hoped to have everything but the painting done before my annual solstice party, but that is just not going to be the case.  At least I will have a beautifully tiled room, with a nice vanity to show off…

A friend of mine was showing me some pictures of this old house in a small Ohio town of Utica.  The sad thing about the whole situation is the place is scheduled to be torn down.  It’s hard to believe that a small town wouldn’t want to protect it’s history.

The place has the look of a perfect haunted house, but since I know so little about it, and since it has been empty for so long, who can say.  The current owners say that the house would take over $100,000.00 to renovate, the roof leaks and I heard that the someone had went through the floor also.  The odd thing is it has new windows.  It’s a real shame that the house wasn’t cared for since it is such an interesting architectural style.  If you look closely at the front of the house you can see that it had been built in additions. It may have been a quaint little farm house once.

This is just one of those issues where I wish I could do something to preserve the old place.  But since I can’t go in it’s really hard to tell what all it really needs.  Coming up with the time and money also doesn’t help. Anyway,  Enjoy the pictures.

Sorting through some photos we came across a series taken by the builders while we disappeared off the island for four weeks during the renovations.

Note to people undertaking similar projects … its best not to wait until the morning before you leave to have vital conversations with workmen about things such as positioning of walls.  In our defence we hadn’t appreciated they’d get to that point in the project until we got back.  In their defence they had thought that they’d be able to call us if they had any essential queries.  We’d met the builders through a friend in a neighbouring village; they’d worked on his property, a lovely old village house, during which point the owner was either in residence or working on contracts in obscure locations.

Their logic was that if they were able to contact him in Angola, with the sound of gunfire in the background as they discussed paint colours, then we would be equally contactable.  What they failed to factor into the equation was that we were due to spend two weeks sailing across the Atlantic on the world’s largest sailing ship and for much of that time would be beyond all normal communication channels.

What, no window?

The misunderstanding, and the positioning of walls and the like, was dealt with quickly.  As a result the builders were able to get on with building out the upper floor and replacing the doors and windows while we were gone.

The photo above shows one of the builder contemplating the work needed to tidy up the window opening before the new window was fitted.  The new front door had recently been fitted.  Looking closely at the top right of the photo you can see some of the smoke damage from the fireplace … more of that later no doubt.

Over the weekend, we finally did what we wanted to do ever since we got the house – we knocked down the mudroom in the back. We had some room left in the waste bin and the first snow storm was just around the corner so we knew it was now or never. With BJ’s help, we took turn and tool it down in no time. As it turns out, destroying something is a lot more fun than constructing something. We think Hayley just found a new calling in life. She sure knows how to handle a crowbar. A side note, we finished mudding and started sanding the upstairs bedroom. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Pardon the blurriness, these were shot through a glass brick